bio

I am the author of three full-length poetry collections: The Cupboard Artist (Floating Bridge Press, 2012) Now (Bear Star Press 2007), and By a Thread (Van West & Company, 2000). My chapbooks are Blue Willow (Floating Bridge Press, 1998), Old Voile (New Michigan Press, 2004), and Story (Cash Machine, 2005). My collaborative book with Ellen Ziegler, featuring photographs and poems about ventriloquism, is just out, and is called Exercises to Free the Tongue.

Honors include residencies at Hedgebrook and at the Helen Riaboff Whiteley Center, participation in the Jack Straw Writers’ Program, and a 2009 Washington State Artist Trust Fellowship.

I am also a musician, playing old-time banjo music from the southeastern United States; my two solo CDs are* Instead of a Pony* and Goose and Gander. I play for dances, weddings, and parties, in concerts and in cafes. My bands are The Queen CIty Bulldogs and Dram County, and I do duets with my brother, Dan Tenenbaum. Banjo lessons available.